Sindhi Sarangi
Sarangi is one of the most important instruments, for the accompaniment of vocal music and dance of all types of northern India. It is found through out the country, but the instrument is confined only to the professionals of bouth communities, namely: Hindus and Muslims a like. In Rajasthan it is called Sindhi Sarangi which belongs to the professional caste of musicians “Langas”. They are playing this instrument from centuries for their patrons “Sindhi Sipahis”.
Sindhi Sarangi is made of a block of wood preferable of Mango or Shisham. The entire body is hollow from inside with two combined parts. Both the side of the lower part are punched and the whole is covered by the goat skin. The upper part serves the purpose of finger board. It has four wooden pegs, Known as Morna in local language of Langas. There are total 26 strings used in the Sindhi Sarangi.
Two main upper strings are made by the goat guts and rests are made by still wire. It is played with a bow, made of a hard round stick of wood to which too hair of tail of a horse are fixed a both the ends and a small wooden triangular but curved bridge is placed at one end to keep the hair tight. The bow is held in the right hand and moved from one end to the other vertically on the main guts to produce sound. The fingers, namely; fore, middle, ring and some times the little finger are also used to produce notes of different pitch at different length of the different guts.
Bin/Pungi
This particular type of wind instrument is played by the snake-charmers of INDIA. In western rajasthan it is played by nomadic caste like Kalbelia, jogi etc. It is made of a curved gourd of abut eighteen inches long with an opening at the narrow end. Two thin, straight and smooth bamboo pieces with usual holes similar to a flute are attached in the centre below the gourd. The open narrow portion of the gourd is blown by the mouth, to produce desired notes. The tune produced from Pungi is simple and stereo type but charming and the same exercise a great power over serpents of all types. It is strange no doubt how the weird sound of a pungi affects poisonous snakes in India. Pungi is confined to the snake charmers in India and it is also made only by those people and none else.
Khamachye
Kamaicha is a bow and string instrument, which is exclusively played by the Manganair community of western rajasthan. The kamaicha is made by mango wood. The lower part of the kamaicha is big hollow round covered by the goat skin. Total 14 to 17 strings used in the kamaicha, but 2 upper most strings made by the guts of goat. It is played with a bow, made of a hard round stick of wood to which too hair of tail of a horse are fixed a both the ends and a small wooden triangular but curved bridge is placed at one end to keep the hair tight. The bow is held in the right hand and moved from one end to the other vertically on the main guts to produce sound.
Kartals
The words ‘Kar’ means hand and ‘Tal’ means Rhythm. Rhythm of Hands. Khartaal is a kind of castanets, made of teak wood, and the artistes hold them in both hands and perform with tremendous ease. A young man’s Kartal play holding it in his hands was a thrill to watch for the way he created complex percussion sounds, while his partner was playing the dholak.
Aloogoza
Aloogoza belongs to the wind type of instruments. It is just like an ordinary flute having finger holes ranging from six to eight. Algoja has the two wooden flute, uneven in length. It is played by blowing straight through the mouth hole. Aloogoza is the most common and popular type of wind instrument used to the accompaniment of the folk singing. In Rajasthan, Algoza made by the local wood Ker and Sisham.
Morchang
Morchang is Jew’s harp is an elastic thin iron strip called the tongue a fixed to a circular iron ring. This strip projects a little beyond the right at one end at the other end is slightly curled. It passes right along the centre of the ring and between the two arms. the instrument is held in the left hand and the fork portion is held in the mouth. The curled end of the tongue is plucked by the forefinger of the right hand. The cavity of the mouth acts as resonator. When played along with the dholak, the combined effect is delightful and pleasing.
Dholak
The dholak is a classical North Indian, Pakistani and Nepalese hand drum. A dholak may have traditional lacing or turnbuckle tuning. The dholak has a simple membrane and a handle on the right-hand side. The left-hand membrane has a special coating on the inner surface. This coating is a mixture of tar, clay and sand (dholak masala) which lowers the pitch and provides a well-defined tone. The wood used for the membrane is usually made of teak wood, also known as “sheesham” wood. The process of hollowing out the drum is the determination of the sound and quality of the dholak. A dholak has 2 heads a small part for the high pitch, and the large part is for the low pitch and it’s pitched depending on size and tuning sounding like a bongo in playing mode.
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Published by Winfried Brumma http://www.pressenet.info on behalf of Rajasthan Folk Arts, India
Written by Winfried Brumma
Chief editor at Pressenet, Germany
I really dont know, how to play piano, but I have some moves 
